OpenAI stock: can you buy it, who owns OpenAI and what an IPO would take

Figures checked against official announcements and filings on October 17, 2026.

As of October 17, 2026, you cannot buy OpenAI stock on a stock exchange. OpenAI is a private company with no ticker symbol, and its shares are held by the OpenAI Foundation, Microsoft, employees and private investors.

OpenAI said on June 8, 2026 that it had confidentially submitted a draft S-1 to the SEC, the first formal step toward a possible IPO. It has not published the filing or set a listing date. Figures checked on October 17, 2026.

Can you buy OpenAI stock today?

No public market trades OpenAI shares. There is no ticker, so any “OpenAI ticker symbol” shown on a website or app is not an official listing. Searches such as “openai stock price” return no exchange price, because none exists.

OpenAI has sold shares only in private transactions: funding rounds with institutional investors and company-run sales for employees. In its March 2026 funding announcement, OpenAI said it had extended participation to individual investors through bank channels for the first time, raising over $3 billion. It also said OpenAI will be added to several ARK Invest exchange-traded funds. That is a narrow route that depends on those banks and funds, not a public listing.

Anyone offered “pre-IPO OpenAI shares” by a third party should treat the offer with care. An unlisted company’s shares carry transfer restrictions set by the company, and a filing for an IPO does not make existing shares tradable.

Who owns OpenAI?

OpenAI describes its structure as a nonprofit that controls a for-profit public benefit corporation. The nonprofit is the OpenAI Foundation, and the for-profit is OpenAI Group PBC. The recapitalization that created this structure closed in late October 2025, after consultation with the attorneys general of California and Delaware, according to OpenAI.

OpenAI’s published ownership breakdown at the closing of the recapitalization:

• OpenAI Foundation: 26% of OpenAI Group, valued by OpenAI at about $130 billion at the time. The Foundation also holds a warrant for additional shares if the company reaches a valuation milestone.
• Microsoft: about 27% on an as-converted diluted basis, an investment Microsoft valued at about $135 billion. Before OpenAI’s most recent funding rounds it had held 32.5%.
• Current and former employees and other investors: the remaining 47%.

These percentages date from October 2025. Later funding rounds issued new shares, so each holder’s current share is likely lower. OpenAI has not published an updated cap table in the pages reviewed. For “who owns OpenAI stock” and “openai owner”, the accurate answer is a nonprofit foundation with control, Microsoft as the largest single outside holder at that date, and many employees and investors.

The Foundation controls the for-profit through its right to appoint the board of OpenAI Group, and the Foundation’s directors also sit on OpenAI Group’s board. For the background on how OpenAI pays its staff in equity, see our report on OpenAI employee stock rewards.

Funding rounds and valuation history

Sources for each row: the March 2025 row comes from OpenAI’s “New funding to build towards AGI” post. The February 2026 row comes from OpenAI’s “Scaling AI for everyone” post, which said Amazon’s $50 billion starts with $15 billion and a further $35 billion follows when certain conditions are met. The March 2026 row comes from OpenAI’s “OpenAI raises $122 billion to accelerate the next phase of AI” post. OpenAI’s pages reviewed do not explain how the $110 billion announcement relates to the later $122 billion total. The two employee sale rows are not from OpenAI’s own pages. The October 2025 figures are reported by the Wall Street Journal and other outlets, and the August 2026 sale was reported by Dealroom and AI Weekly, which disagree on who bought the shares.

The “openai net worth” and “openai worth” questions come down to this: the latest valuation OpenAI itself has published is $852 billion post-money, set by private investors in March 2026. It is a negotiated price in a private round, not a market price.

OpenAI vs Anthropic valuation

Anthropic announced on May 28, 2026 a Series H of $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation, led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital. That is higher than OpenAI’s last published figure of $852 billion. The two numbers come from different dates and different rounds, so the comparison shows the last announced private price for each company, not a ranking of the businesses.

Anthropic also said it confidentially submitted a draft S-1 to the SEC on June 1, 2026, a week before OpenAI’s announcement. Both companies have said their offerings depend on market conditions and other factors. For Anthropic’s products and plans, see our Claude Code subscription guide.

What OpenAI has officially said about an IPO

OpenAI’s June 8, 2026 post said it had confidentially submitted a draft Form S-1 to the SEC. The post was made under Rule 135 of the Securities Act, so it is not an offer to sell securities. OpenAI said it expected the news to leak and chose to announce it first. It said it has not decided on timing, and that going public may be a while.

A confidential submission lets the SEC review a draft before it becomes public. It does not commit the company to list. The registration statement and its financial statements become public only when the company files them openly, which happens ahead of any roadshow. Until then there is no official IPO price, share count or IPO valuation.

For “openai ipo date”, “when openai ipo” and “openai ipo price”, the official answer is that no date, price or valuation has been set.

What is only reported about timing and valuation

The following comes from news reports, not from OpenAI filings:

• Delay: according to Fortune, in an interview published September 12, 2026, Sam Altman said it would be an “ill-advised moment” to go public in 2026, and when asked he said, “I would say not 2026.” He did not name another date. Several outlets, including Bloomberg and TechCrunch, reported this as pointing to 2027, which is their reading and not a stated commitment.
• Earlier target: according to The New York Times, OpenAI had hired bankers and lawyers aiming at a third or fourth quarter 2026 listing but was leaning toward 2027 by June.
• Valuation: in late 2025, Reuters reported OpenAI was preparing for an IPO that could value it at up to $1 trillion. That was reporting, and OpenAI has not confirmed any IPO valuation. See our earlier coverage of the $1 trillion report.
• Banks: reports name Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan as possible lead underwriters. None of this has been confirmed by OpenAI.

What an IPO would require

For OpenAI to list, it would need to make the S-1 public with audited financial statements and risk disclosures, and the SEC would need to declare the registration statement effective. It would also pick a stock exchange, a ticker and a price range, and market the offering to investors. Only after pricing would shares start trading.

The structure adds a specific feature. Because the OpenAI Foundation controls OpenAI Group PBC, a listing would involve a public company whose controlling holder is a nonprofit, and a public benefit corporation that must weigh its stated mission alongside shareholder interests. The public S-1 would show how those rights are written.

Listed companies with an official stake or partnership

Several public companies have disclosed ties to OpenAI. These are facts about their relationships, not a list of ways to gain exposure.

• Microsoft said in its October 28, 2025 announcement that its stake is roughly 27% on an as-converted diluted basis, that its IP rights to OpenAI models and products run through 2032, and that OpenAI committed to an additional $250 billion of Azure services.
• Amazon is named by OpenAI as committing $50 billion, in stages, in the 2026 round, and as a strategic partner.
• NVIDIA is named by OpenAI as committing $30 billion in the 2026 round, separate from its earlier stated intention to invest up to $100 billion as gigawatts of its systems are deployed.
• SoftBank is named by OpenAI as committing $30 billion in the 2026 round and as a co-lead of the March 2026 close.

Each company’s share price reflects many other businesses and factors. Their disclosures show that each has a relationship with OpenAI, not how large that relationship is as a share of their value. For the latest model news from one of these partners, see GPT-6.1 Sol arriving in Microsoft Foundry.

What to watch next

• A public S-1 filing on SEC EDGAR, which would be the first official look at OpenAI’s finances.
• Any OpenAI statement on timing, since the company has said it has not set one.
• A new funding round or employee share sale that sets a price above or below $852 billion.
• Anthropic’s own S-1 becoming public, which would show how the two companies describe their businesses.
• An updated ownership breakdown from OpenAI, since the 26% and 27% figures date from October 2025.

Common questions